Dr Naila Rabbani from Warwick Medical School comments on the proposal to offer very low calorie diet treatments to tackle Type 2 diabetes.

She said: "The NHS is planning to offer very low calorie diet treatments to obese people following studies by Professor Roy Taylor and colleagues at the University of Newcastle over the past few years who found this, applied for 2 - 5 months, reversed type 2 diabetes with 40% - 46% effectiveness.

"To address increasing type 2 diabetes in the United Kingdom, undoubtedly attempts to reverse diabetes should be pursued with all vigour. Doubts remain, however, if dietary change alone is sufficient due to problems getting people to keep to their new diet, the 40 - 46% effectiveness and uncertainty if the health benefits will be maintained in the long term.

"This decision by the NHS is a step in the right direction but new and safe pharmaceutical treatments which produce a similar effect will likely also be required. At the University of Warwick we developed one such treatment called a "glyoxalase 1 inducer". It restored good glucose control after 8 weeks treatment with 95% success rate. Use of such treatments and very low calorie dietary regimes will provide the options we need to decrease the threat of type 2 diabetes"

30 November 2018

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